Anchorhead

by Michael Gentry profile

Horror
1998

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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Transcends the Genre, March 27, 2012
by Jim Kaplan (Jim Kaplan has a room called the location. The location of Jim Kaplan is variable.)
Related reviews: michael gentry, horror, fantasy

Play it if: you've always wanted to think of interactive fiction as a true literary genre, for this is a terrifying and emotional tale worthy of its Lovecraftian origins.

Don't play it if: you have an allergy to great storytelling and demand complex puzzles instead, for this game undoubtedly focuses on narrative rather than intellectual challenge - not that this is a bad thing.

Wow. I'd heard this was good, but...wow.

Anchorhead simply blew me away, and I'll tell you why:

Because it scared me.

I've read a lot of horror fiction and played a lot of horror-themed video games, but this is the first game to truly frighten me. Gentry's writing is nothing short of astounding in this game, showing top-notch effort and a deft hand in bringing all the necessary elements of a good horror story to life: an atmospheric setting, a dark secret from the past, the confrontation of the unknown...with a dash of some Lovecraft trademarks thrown in for good measure. And finally, of course, the fact that you actually care about what's happening.

Oh yes. I cared a lot more about what was going on in Anchorhead than I did in, say, Adam Cadre's Photopia (which seems to be considered a standard tear-jerker among readers). The stroke of genius employed here is that Gentry creates a chain of cause and effect linking the mundane to the supernatural. In the beginning, the story builds the player's investment in the heroine through vivid descriptions of the unfriendly weather and the unwelcoming environment - we don't want to get into a sewer pipe, or get wet in the rain, or drink that awful cold coffee. We want to meet up with Mike, we want to make a phone call, et cetera. These basic needs form the basis of the more complex and fantastic impulses to investigate and explore, and ultimately the story's climax feels like a moment of genuine crisis, because having walked so thoroughly in the heroine's shoes, you care as much as she does about thwarting the evil that threatens Anchorhead.

It's really kind of beautiful: for the first time in my experience with IF, I found myself wanting to win out of simply wanting Michael and myself to survive our ordeal.

The game is full of excellently-written horror scenes that use IF's cinematic potentials well. (Spoiler - click to show)Particularly well-written scenes include the slaughterhouse sequence - including the possible deaths - the asylum chase, Doctor Rebis's testimony, and various possibly insanity-inducing events like reading the black tome or observing the comet. The descriptive writing is also very good, being not only thoroughly-implemented but also evocatively described.

Also of note are the numerous reading materials the player encounters in the course of the game: diaries, journals, newsletters, courthouse archives and clippings that aren't always vital to complete the game, but which cumulatively form a picture of Anchorhead's horrific past. These give the game a real sense of wonder and discovery as the player uncovers mysteries layer by layer - the kind of curiosity very few games can truly evoke.

Let's discuss some technical details. The game is generally well-coded considering some of the more finicky mechanics Gentry chose to include. Minor flaws include some amusing syntax errors when taking inventory, trying to let go of a certain rope when in the dark, and occasional difficulties with adding keys to the keyring. But these are easily ignored in the face of the game's overwhelming quality. While not the most challenging of games, Anchorhead's puzzles are almost totally free of "guess-the-verb" games (Spoiler - click to show)(the one major exception being releasing Jeffrey - somehow the command "free boy" didn't feel intuitive to me). There's enough challenge here that a decent player need never resort to a walkthrough, but may still want to spend a few days to a week poring over the possibilities.

In a way, it was almost a relief to see a game this large and complex managing to tell its story and pose some good obstacles without having to create too much in the way of extra vocabulary. In spite of the almost sprawling nature of the setting, the economy of important objects and required actions helps maintain the player's sense of perspective, and you're never really in danger of getting lost in the town. (Being able to write a realistic yet intuitively navigable system of streets is no mean feat!)

In sum, Michael S. Gentry writes that Anchorhead "doesn't even live up to my own standards about how a REALLY good game should be designed." If so, his standards must be astronomically high, for in spite of the odd glitch, this is one of the greatest works of IF ever written - one which I would be proud to show a beginner as an example of how IF can aspire to tell stories as moving and creative as those of literature and film. As with Watchmen, Star Wars, and Final Fantasy VI in their time, this is a work which leaps beyond the misconceptions and old assumptions about its original genre and could be truly considered a self-contained work of art.

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0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
can't read news clippings or book on iPad , January 30, 2012
by Chad

love the game but there is significant bug on the Frotz/iPad version where you can't read the news clippings or the library book. The space bar bumps you out instead of moving to the next clipping. Help please! thank you.

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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Just get to the part where I go insane already, March 9, 2011
by spinnerin (Portland, OR)

I really wanted to like this, because I’m a Lovecraft fan and it's highly rated on IFDB. Alas, I had multiple “throw the book across the room” moments within the first hour. The game map is wide open at the start, so if you’re not clear on what it expects you to do, you can wander off and completely screw up your ability to continue.

On round 2 (after restarting), I wandered until I found the PC’s husband, attempted to talk to him to figure out what I should be doing, and wound up so frustrated I wanted to punch him (the game insisted that was out of character). The parser interaction is not very polished--I kept having to try different approaches for what seemed like basic actions.

Eventually I consulted the walkthrough, which told me my first move was to do something that seemed entirely out of character for someone who is dressed in “a tasteful ensemble from Ann Taylor”. So I yelled at the game for a few more minutes, then quit.

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7 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Anchorhead - a great game but a pain in the butt, December 11, 2010
by pcb2x
Related reviews: Anchorhead

This is a game that does get one involved. Puzzles are in general easy to medium hard and the writing is engrossing. But the end left me greatly annoyed. Apparently I was supposed to find something halfway through the game (I finally broke down and read the solution to find out what I had missed). But in the beginning I looked and it wasn't there and near the end I looked again and it wasn't there. Apparently only if you looked at a particular time did the required object show up. So I fought my way through to the end only to be completely stopped.
This is a long game and I'll damned if I am going to go back and repeat half the steps again. So I never finished and that's a shame.

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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
A truly engaging and satisfying experience!, November 10, 2010
by Lipa (Slovenia)

It took me quite some time to pick up this title, despite its high ratings and numerous recommendations. In fact, I think that the reviews sort of scared me away. I read about situations in the game where you can lock yourself out of a winnable position (which I generally don’t like at all), and also about some very tight time limits. However, there was also talk about great story and superb atmosphere, and I think this (combined with the sheer popularity and almost cult-like status of Anchorhead) finally convinced me to dive in.

And this was probably one of the best decisions of the year! Anchorhead, indeed, is more than a game. It’s another reality, a second life, just waiting to be explored, with all its secrets and dark history. It is truly easy to get immersed in the experience, and by the end of day two I felt like I’ve been a part of this town forever. The story is fascinating and unfolds at an exactly the right pace, letting you slowly amount more and more knowledge about the past events and what’s going on. I must admit that I had little knowledge of the Cthulu Mythos prior to playing the game (though I vaguely remember the premise of the adventure game “The Shadow of the Comet” which I played ages ago), and maybe this is also the reason why I was even more drawn to the story, hungry for more information. In the end, everything fell into place, the story masterfully unfolded, and all the loose ends were tied.

And what about the difficulty which I feared? It is true that there are some tight time limits and unwinnable situations, however I realized in the end that their importance seems to be a bit exaggerated in the reviews. If playing sensibly, keeping track of the story and trying to hold on to your belongings, unwinnable situations can be avoided almost completely. As to the few time limits, they turned out to be so brief that it’s fairly simple to undo and try another approach, and the solutions are usually quite logical too. All in all, I only got stuck once at the end of day two, and I could probably solve even this puzzle without consulting the walkthrough, if only I weren’t as impatient to see the rest of the story unfold.

I truly recommend this game to everyone looking for a good story-driven IF with excellent atmosphere, relatively large world to explore, and logical puzzles to solve. I think the memory of this game, the town of Anchorhead and its troubled populace will stick with me for a long time to come, and the overall experience definitely ranks at top three of my gaming history. Thumbs up, way up!

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Best Lovecraft Adaptation, in all mediums, August 25, 2010
by Xervosh (San Jose, Northern California)

Better than any of the movies, is what I mean to say.

This truly is a fantastic and exceedingly well-written piece of IF. Its so damn good, it makes me want to write my own, to see if I can come up with something comparable. A few of the "puzzles"/moves-you-have-to-make are a bit unintuitive, you might say, and I, personally, never would have solved this thing without a walk-thru (although I did solve a LOT of the puzzles myself). It was very immersive & evocative, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of playing it. I've been a Lovecraft fan and an IF fan for almost 30 years (I first read Lovecraft in 1981, and first began playing IF in '82), and this game was far superior to The Lurking Horror (which is also good, of course). If you also grew up with Lovecraft and Infocom, I can scarcely recommend this game enough!

One minor quibble; a couple of times I did the right thing, but I used the wrong verb, and so it didn't work, and yet I received no feedback to make me think I had merely chosen the wrong verb. In one instance this was particularly maddening, in that the author seemed to be quite obviously trying to fool me into thinking I had done something correctly ...which resulted in, well, about as bad a thing as could possibly occur, and my needing to check the walk-thru again, and then out of sheer desperation, trying a different verb...and getting a different result! Aaarrgghhhh! (Spoiler - click to show)Oddly both problems involved the fish oil; I said to "rub" the fish oil on the mirror, and it polished it to a high sheen, thus facilitating Armageddon, as opposed to merely putting the oil on the mirror, which resulted in a smear, and thus saved Humanity. Also, I tried to "pour" the fish oil on the hinge, and was chided for making a mess. Again, you must merely "put" the fish oil on the hinge in order to lubricate it.

Additionally, its very important for you to know a particular verb, that is basically a synonym for another term you will use throughout the game...but you get a different result when you use the quasi-synonym. (Spoiler - click to show)You must "search" several items, not merely "examine (or "x") them.

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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Anchorhead: Better than All TV., April 10, 2010
by Danielle (The Wild West)
Related reviews: horror game

Note: this review was written while I was in the beginning of the game. I've since finished and have added some more notes to the end.

* * *

I started ANCHORHEAD last night. It's not a new release--it won a slew of awards in back in 1998, and for good reason.

See, I've been craving an eerie game I could really sink my teeth into, and ANCHORHEAD has delivered.

The depth of its gameworld is incredible. When Earthworm Jim came out, everyone said, "It's like playing a Saturday morning cartoon!" Remember that? Well, ANCHORHEAD is like playing an excellently-written novella.

The attention to detail is incredible--you can interact with most objects you see, and the gameworld responds in a believable manner. Because of this, it's really easy to get into character. For example, I always lock the door when I leave the house. Does it do anything related to gameplay? No. But because I feel like I'm such a part of this world, I feel like I MUST act as though it is my real world, and thus--I lock up my (Spoiler - click to show)(electricity-less, sometimes frightening) house when I leave.

Here's another example: (Spoiler - click to show)It was morning in the game. I had just woken up, and my husband was in the shower. I had the feeling I'd need his university ID card later on, and his pants were hanging there right off the end of the bed. So I rifled through the pockets. Sure enough, the ID card was right there in his wallet...But in the end, I felt guilty about going through his things. So I left the card in his wallet.
Did I just lock myself out of some major puzzle or backstory? Maybe. But at least I didn't steal from my husband. That's the sort of feeling ANCHORHEAD evokes for me.

(Also, the game gave me points for soaking in a bath. :3 )

Another great thing about ANCHORHEAD: the puzzles fit. There were a number of times today where I felt like I was at a total dead end, but by taking a closer look at a couple of things, tinkering around with realistic game actions--BOOM! New paths were opened. New mysteries revealed.

And there's the other thing--with some games, you solve a puzzle...bing. That's it. Check the puzzle off your list, you're done. In ANCHORHEAD, with every new revelation you discover about (Spoiler - click to show)your creepy house (and the INSANE PEOPLE who owned it), three more unsettling questions pop up. It makes it nigh impossible to put down.

I could write tons more about how I love this, but I really want to go back and see (Spoiler - click to show)what's in the crypt behind our house. You all, you just...just try it.

* * *

Well! The final half of the game was harder for me. I probably could have figured a few of them out on my own (though for me, (Spoiler - click to show)escaping William at the slaughterhouse turned into an episode of "Guess the Verb"), but you know what it's like with walkthroughs: you can't just look ONCE.

Despite the harder puzzles taking me out of the game's spell, I still highly recommend ANCHORHEAD. Some actions you're forced into to turn the story's feeling away from Grandpa Lovecraft and into Uncle Steve's realm, but it felt appropriate.

Really...the epilogue. You'll be thinking about that for a while.

My favorite death: (Spoiler - click to show)Reading through the Huge Tome in the church. It summed up the horror of Grandpa Lovecraft's work in what--3 paragraphs? If ANCHORHEAD was a book I would have bookmarked this page. FOREVER.

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3 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Spooky and Puzzlicious, May 16, 2009
by Bernie (Fredericksburg, VA)

I'm not normally a fan of horror games, but the prose in this game was so well-written that I couldn't tear myself away. This is my #1 most recommended game to friends, since I found the puzzles fairly intuitive and fun.

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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Lovecraftian Masterpiece, March 11, 2009
by Archbaron (Texas)

Anchorhead is a well-developed masterpiece of both prose and gameplay that leaves you thirsty for more horror lore when the game draws to its close. The puzzles are intuitive and pretty straight-forward, but open enough to allow for multiple solutions depending on how you think. The atmosphere is rich and really sucks you into the Gothic ambiance, which amplifies the story's effectiveness tenfold. In addition, the diction is manipulated perfectly to allow for chills to run down your spine and your hands to shake on the keyboard, all tall-tale signs of a good horror experience. However, this game has a few flaws, as stated in other reviews. Near the end of the game, it is very easy to miss a subtle clue or item that can leave the game unbeatable. However, if you save often, you'll be fine, because there's almost always a chance to go back and hunt down the item you need to acquire, or the puzzle you have to solve. I believe this game to be a fine beacon in the genre of interactive horror fiction, and I'm sure most who have played would agree. Even if you do not have experience with Lovecraft, the story is followable and even more intriguing to your "untainted" mind. However, by the end of the game, the vivid terror and sheer depth of the lore involved will leave you inspired to pick up a Lovecraft novel and foster a healthy respect for the horror genre and a desire to divulge yourself more in the spooks and thrill of Lovecraftian masterpieces such as this one.

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7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
One of the best IF games I've ever played, June 18, 2008
by probabilityZero (Folsom, CA)

This is the game that got me into interactive fiction. The writing is wonderful, the atmosphere is perfect, the setting is carefully constructed, and the story is captivating and frightening.

One thing to note -- something I certainly wasn't expecting when I first started playing -- is that Anchorhead is hard, as well as almost massive compared to most IF games I've played since. Those aren't necessarily bad things, though, and in fact I'd say they made the game much better.

Bottom line is, if you like Lovecraftian horror, then you'll love this game.

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